


There's a Song in my Head that I Hate

by Yami_Kada7



Series: Link Down [9]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Day 9, Music, VRAINS Week 2019, VRLink14, Yusaku needs a break, bad playlists, pulling pranks to cheer someone up, sorta shippy? idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 04:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yami_Kada7/pseuds/Yami_Kada7
Summary: Kusanagi-san has decided that music will make Cafe Nagi more appealing, but Yusaku couldn't agree less.





	There's a Song in my Head that I Hate

**Author's Note:**

> This is super late but I'm getting somewhere! The next installment in this series is gonna be pretty short, but it will be a multi-chapter thing, so no worries. I just am not gonna be able to get the whole thing ready in time.
> 
> For this piece, no songs are specified, so just substitute in any songs that you particularly dislike and you should be able to imagine Yusaku's pain pretty easily.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

When Kusanagi-san first brought up the idea of a playlist, Yusaku thought that would be fine. Places with music did seem to get more traffic, after all, and plenty of music streaming services made putting together playlists easy. Finding a variety of songs that a wide range of people would enjoy seemed easy enough, a quick google search would give Kusanagi-san a wide variety to choose from.

But no, instead Kusanagi-san picked four songs that were upbeat as all hell and set them on repeat on a playlist on the computer that was hooked up to a speaker.

Yusaku was only halfway through his six hour shift, but he didn’t know how much more he could take before he started banging his head against the hot grill.

He was never a fan of pop music, and this was some of the stuff that people liked but he could never understand why it was on the radio. It was all high-pitched, fast, half the words were just the same phrases repeated over and over, and all put together none of them made any sense. At least people seemed to like it, some children watching the duels on the big screens had dragged their parents over and danced as their food was ordered.

Maybe if he hadn’t been hearing the same four songs for the last three hours, he could see the appeal. Yet he had been, and someone had better walk up and order something to distract him before the sanitation of the spatula didn’t matter so long as it could get his ears off of his head.

“Hey Fujiki! Nice beats!” Shima called as he walked up to the truck. Correction: someone that he didn’t already want to avoid had better walk up and order something. As Shima leaned in to see the menu though, it didn’t look like he would get that sort of relief.

“You know you didn’t strike me as the kind of guy to like this type of music, Fujiki! Guess you learn something new everyday!” Shima let out that exaggerated laugh of his.

“I don’t, my boss put together this playlist. What will you be ordering today?” As if it was even a question, he always got the same thing, but anything to not have to verbally discuss the monstrosity assaulting his ears.

“Oh you know me! Two chili dogs, chips, and an extra large soda!” Yusaku nodded along to the order, two chili dogs already partway through preparation. The benefit of regular customers was that he could get their food out faster, but today that was also a drawback.

All too soon he was left alone with the music again, and Yusaku resigned himself to running over a program he was working on in his head to drown it out. Just three more hours. He’d endured so far, so he could endure it that much more. 

One hour later, and he had run out of programs to complete in his head. He knew all the words to all four songs, and was trying to decipher them beyond the basic repetitions of sounds meant to get people’s blood pumping. He wasn’t getting far, the artists didn’t seem to be saying all that much.

The next hour was the rush for the end of the workday. People didn’t want to wait to get home, and with the truck’s central location they usually flocked to it in droves. They scowled at the speaker as they waited in line, a good sign for Yusaku’s sanity, because at least there were other people who found the music just as miserable as he did. The rush passed far too quickly, in a blur of flipping hot dogs and filling cups of coffee. 

Luckily for Yusaku, a more welcome face showed up right at the end of the rush. “One hot dog and a coffee.” A hand with a red tattoo slid the money across the counter without having to be told the total, and Yusaku followed the arm up to Ryoken’s face. 

He took the offered cash. “It’ll be just a moment.” He busied himself with the preparations, not bothering to look up again as the other leaned against the otherwise empty counter. 

“Interesting choice of music.” Ryoken commented into the silence. “I’m guessing that it was Kusanagi-san’s idea?”

Yusaku nodded. “Places with music tend to get more traffic, so he decided to give it a try.” He let himself grimace. “But his way of going about it is terrible.”

Ryoken raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How so?”

Yusaku sighed, grabbing the toppings for the hot dog. “One, there are only four songs on this playlist. Two, they play in the same order every time without pause. And three, I hate this type of music.” He set down the toppings and grabbed a cup.

“Hate seems like a rather strong word.” Ryoken mused.

“Not after today it doesn’t.” Yusaku set his coffee down on the counter, hot dog beside it. “Enjoy your food.”

Ryoken picked them up. “I’m sure I will.” Then, he surprised Yusaku by walking over to the table in front of the truck and sitting down.

Yusaku was about to ask what he was up to, he always just took his food and left, but another customer walked up and Yusaku tried to put it out of his mind. It wasn’t until a little while later, when he was in the middle of making another order, that he got a type of answer.

At first Yusaku didn’t even realize what had happened, too busy going through the motions to register the change, but when his brain finally processed what was happening he stopped and eyed the speaker. There was a new song playing, different than the four that had been playing for the last five hours. 

He forced his hands to keep moving as he shot a look over to where Ryoken was sitting, hot dog gone and laptop open in front of him. The other gave him a fake-innocent look, taking a sip of his coffee to try to hide the grin that kept finding its way onto his face. Yusaku rolled his eyes and kept his face completely neutral. It wouldn’t do to encourage him.

Even as Yusaku served the never-ending stream of customers that walked up, not a single one of the songs that had been plaguing him came on the speaker. It was almost fun, trying to guess what sort of song would come next, shooting glares at the other whenever one a little too risky came on.

The last hour passed far more quickly than the ones before, and as he finished closing up shop, Ryoken finally walked up to the counter again. “So, was that a better mix than Kusanagi-san’s?” He tapped his empty cardboard cup on the edge of the counter.

Yusaku nodded. “Yes, it was a lot more tolerable.” He set his hands on the counter, leaning forward to narrow his eyes at the other. “But you also hacked the truck.”

“It’s not like I have a reason to harm your systems anymore, so what’s the problem?” Ryoken crossed his arms on the counter, smirk widening at narrowed eyes.

“The problem is that you hacked the truck, so now I have to spend the next few hours figuring out how you did it, and build counters to it. We can’t afford a lapse of security around here.” Yusaku responded. 

That got Ryoken to frown. “I see. Want me to point out the holes, make the process a little easier?”

Yusaku considered it. Let Revolver into the truck, and risk Kusanagi-san’s inevitable teasing? Or spend all night pouring over code by himself? He sighed, pushing away from the counter. He didn’t look at Ryoken’s face as he walked to the back of the truck and unlocked the door. “I guess it’s the least you can do, given that you caused the problem.” 

Yusaku went and shut the window as Ryoken entered, closing the door behind him. He brought out two of the seats and pushed one so that it rolled over to the other. “Alright, where should we go over first?” He settled down into his own chair and switched on the hidden monitors.

Ryoken sat down, shoulder to shoulder with him. “Here would probably be a good place.” He clicked over into a section of their firewall’s code. “It’s just a small gap, but it’s there.”

Yusaku hummed, and then the next half hour was lost to recoding old sections of the truck’s security. Eventually, he leaned back in his chair, the code seemingly complete. “Is there anything else we need?” He asked Ryoken.

Ryoken peered closely at the screen. “Yes, there’s one more thing we need.” He scrolled through the code in front of him, brow furrowed.

When he didn’t seem inclined to say more, Yusaku sighed. “And that would be?”

That smirk set off alarm bells in his head. “Music.” Ryoken pressed enter, and the first song that Kusanagi-san had put on his playlist rang through the air.

Yusaku had never wanted to punch someone so badly.

**Author's Note:**

> Kusanagi: Hey Yusaku, did you add more songs to my playlist?  
> Yusaku: No, Revolver hacked the truck to change the music.  
> Kusanagi:??!!?!?!?!???
> 
> Please let me know what you thought! I love feedback!
> 
> If anyone is interested, you can find me over on Tumblr under @yami-kada
> 
> In the spirit of last year's Vrainsweek, this piece is not beta'd!


End file.
